[ 2017-05-16 ]

Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister

Biometric registration blues: More public sector workers paid - Head of Gov't Pa
The Controller and Accountant-General’s
Department (CAGD) has released the salaries of
9,234 public sector workers who did not receive
their salaries in April 2017.

The 9,234 were among the 26,589 public sector
workers whose salaries were withheld last month
following their failure to validate their data
with the Social Security and National Insurance
Trust (SSNIT).

According to the Head of Payroll at the CAGD, Mr
George Kofi Baah, the salaries were released last
Thursday.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra
yesterday, Mr Baah said “the remaining affected
workers are currently going through the validation
process with SSNIT. They will be paid at the end
of this month, together with their May salaries,
when SSNIT clears them”.

Comply with directive

He urged public sector workers to comply with the
directive from the Ministry of Finance to
biometrically register with SSNIT.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken
Ofori-Atta, has apologised to public sector
workers who were not paid last month, in spite of
the fact that they had registered with SSNIT.

He said two directors at the Ministry of Finance
were also affected.

He was, however, emphatic that the exercise to
clean the payroll of ghost names to save the
public purse was on course.

The minister said the government was committed to
ridding the public payroll of ghost names and,
accordingly, urged labour unions to support the
government in that regard.

The Controller and Accountant-General’s
Department (CAGD) has released the salaries of
9,234 public sector workers who did not receive
their salaries in April 2017.

The 9,234 were among the 26,589 public sector
workers whose salaries were withheld last month
following their failure to validate their data
with the Social Security and National Insurance
Trust (SSNIT).

According to the Head of Payroll at the CAGD, Mr
George Kofi Baah, the salaries were released last
Thursday.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra
yesterday, Mr Baah said “the remaining affected
workers are currently going through the validation
process with SSNIT. They will be paid at the end
of this month, together with their May salaries,
when SSNIT clears them”.

Background

A total of 457,595 public sector workers have so
far complied with a directive from the government
to biometrically register their data with SSNIT.

Biometric registration of public sector workers
began in 2015.

Several directives have been issued to public
servants over a period of more than a year,
instructing them to biometrically upgrade their
records with SSNIT.

However, majority of the affected public sector
workers did not comply, in spite of the many
reminders.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Finance sent a
directive to the Controller and Accountant-General
to withhold the salaries of the affected public
servants until they complied with the directive.

Press release

A statement by the Ministry of Finance in April
2017 said Mr Ofori-Atta had, on February 10, 2017,
requested the CAGD to inform all public servants
on the government’s mechanised payroll system
who had not registered on the new SSNIT biometric
system to do so by the end of February 2017.

“This directive will come into effect on the
April 2017 payroll. Consequently, those not
registered with SSNIT, as directed, shall be
treated as ‘ghosts’, going forward, and shall
as such be removed from the payroll for April
2017.

“These two directives, resulting in the
identification of close to 50,000 ghost names on
the payroll and the Pensions Registry, are
expected to save the country some GH¢35 million
in payroll cost on a monthly basis or a total of
over GH¢250 million in 2017 alone,” it saidA
total of 457,595 public sector workers have so far
complied with a directive from the government to
biometrically register their data with SSNIT.

Biometric registration of public sector workers
began in 2015.

Several directives have been issued to public
servants over a period of more than a year,
instructing them to biometrically upgrade their
records with SSNIT.

However, majority of the affected public sector
workers did not comply, in spite of the many
reminders.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Finance sent a
directive to the Controller and Accountant-General
to withhold the salaries of the affected public
servants until they complied with the directive.

Press release

A statement by the Ministry of Finance in April
2017 said Mr Ofori-Atta had, on February 10, 2017,
requested the CAGD to inform all public servants
on the government’s mechanised payroll system
who had not registered on the new SSNIT biometric
system to do so by the end of February 2017.

“This directive will come into effect on the
April 2017 payroll. Consequently, those not
registered with SSNIT, as directed, shall be
treated as ‘ghosts’, going forward, and shall
as such be removed from the payroll for April
2017.

“These two directives, resulting in the
identification of close to 50,000 ghost names on
the payroll and the Pensions Registry, are
expected to save the country some GH¢35 million
in payroll cost on a monthly basis or a total of
over GH¢250 million in 2017 alone,” it said.

Source - Graphic.com.gh

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